"A.D.H.D."

Top Dawg

Artists:

For years almost every new, hyped rapper rhymed about selling drugs. Now young artists are rapping about taking drugs, and lots of them. This shift can probably be traced back to Lil Wayne, rap's mega-superstar whose boom in popularity coincided with a shift in persona from coke-pushing spitfire to free-associative weed-chimney. Or it could be Kanye West, not a drug user per se, but whose rise amongst thugs showed that you could amass sales and respect in equal amounts without identifying as a drug dealer. Even the music of Waka Flocka Flame, trap music's most recent success, leaves behind the blueprint drawn up by T.I. and Young Jeezy. Rick Ross, the coke era's last legacy (hate it or love it), now pals around almost exclusively with Wayne and Drake, the latter of which is the bionic spawn of Weezy and 'Ye. It's drug-infused ennui-- shared, if not cultivated, by stars like Kid Cudi and Drake-- that most informs a handful of hot rappers, whether Wiz Khalifa or underground blog idols Lil B and Squadda B.

Compton's Kendrick Lamar falls squarely in this matrix; in fact, it could be argued that he's the ultimate amalgamation of these trends. The DNA of "A.D.H.D.", a track off his new album, Section.80, is easy to trace: There's the Based God's paranoia, Drake's singing/rapping fluidity, the soothing synthscapes of Wiz's mixtapes, and, of course, an obsession with drugs. The track tells a story of substances and romance not far off of Frank Ocean's "Novacane", but with enough missing details, introspection, and asides of social critique to make you interested in what lurks beneath. "A.D.H.D." is plainly of its moment, but Lamar's individuality and skill as a rapper shine through. If the lasting impression isn't that he's a voice that deserves to be heard, maybe it's that the song itself is perfectly emblematic: "I'm in the house party trippin'/ Off my generation, sippin'/ Cough syrup like it's water/ Never no pancakes in the kitchen..."